In this back-to-school installment of "HBCU 101," Due South co-host Leoneda Inge talks to NCCU's director of undergraduate admissions, the author of a new book the influence of HBCUs on Black political engagement and NCCU's director of university bands.

On the North Carolina News Roundup… 

The Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ballot hokey pokey has concluded. We think! What’s going on with those absentee ballots set to go out Friday? 

Later, new test scores for K-12 public school students are setting off another debate over how to improve outcomes for our young people.

Meanwhile, are state lawmakers closing in on a deal for more school voucher funding? 

In Asheville, nurses have authorized a strike. We’ll get an update on the labor disagreement at HCA-owned Mission Hospital. 

All that and a notable announcement from a never-Trumper is made at Duke University. 

Join Jeff Tiberii and a panel of reporters for context and analysis of the week's news.

Guests

Dawn Vaughan, Capitol Bureau Chief, The News & Observer

Bryan Anderson, freelance reporter, creator of the “Anderson Alerts” newsletter

Zachery Eanes, reporter, Axios Raleigh

Lilly Knoepp, senior regional reporter, Blue Ridge Public Radio (BPR)

Update on DEI at UNC; concerns from LGBTQ campus communities
Co-host Jeff Tiberii gets an update on changes to DEI - Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion - on UNC campuses. Following a proliferation of DEI offices, officers and efforts, the pendulum has swung decidedly back in recent years. We get an update on where it stands now. Plus, with all the changes to DEI on campuses, some in LGBTQ campus communities are concerned these policy shifts could be weaponized against them. WUNC's Brianna Atkinson has been tracking all of this and joins us for an update.
Brianna Atkinson, WUNC’s 2024 Fletcher Fellow, reporting on higher education in partnership with Open Campus

Author behind hit TV show Bones on a career in forensic anthropology, and her new novel
The Fox television drama “Bones” ran from 2005 to 2017 - the longest drama in the network’s history.  Our guest today was a producer on the show - and the writer who inspired it. In fact, she’s the basis for one of the main characters - Temperance Brennan. "Tempe," as she's known, is based on both the life and novels of Kathy Reichs. Reichs is a forensic anthropologist who's spent much of her career at UNC Charlotte. In addition to her academic research, she has penned 23 novels in the Temperance Brennan Series. She sits down with Leoneda Inge to talk about her work, latest novel, and of course - 'Bones.'
Kathy Reichs, forensic anthropologist, professor emerita in the Department of Anthropology at UNC Charlotte. "Fire and Bones" is the 23rd novel in the Temperance Brennan series.

Co-host Jeff Tiberii talks with two NC doctors working to combat the stigma associated with PSUD (perinatal substance use disorder) and get pregnant people into treatment.

Then, as sea levels increase, so does the water’s impact on North Carolina's coastal communities. From expensive beach rebuilding projects to sewage overflows in the streets to houses collapsing into the oceans, the costs associated with erosion and flooding due to sea level rise can be very steep. David Boraks’ recent reporting project for WHQR, “Rising Waters,” explores how we got here, what’s being done, and where North Carolina’s beach communities are headed.

And, Leoneda Inge and Jeff Tiberii share the next installment in our series Southern Mixtape. Starting Thursday, Raleigh will be rocking once again. It's the start of the 14th annual Hopscotch Music Festival that will run Sept 5th-7th. The festival will feature performances from over 100 artists spanning multiple genres on two main stages and several local music venues in downtown Raleigh. We talk about the festival, featured artists with NC connections, and listen to some music with WUNC's Brian Burns.

On the 2024 campaign trail with NPR’s Ximena Bustillo
Our 2024 election series 'Purple Ballot’ continues with an update from an NPR reporter who’s on the campaign trail. Ximena Bustillo joins us from the road and tells us about why candidates think they deserve your vote.
Ximena Bustillo, reporter with NPR’s Washington Desk

Women’s studies and racial studies intersect in real time with the Harris presidential campaign
If you’re teaching a class about American race relations, gender studies, or political science you’ve got your pick of real-life examples to share this semester. We speak with one woman who teaches all of them and hear about the kind of misogyny and racism one candidate for president is up against.
Nadia Brown, professor of Government, chair of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program and affiliate in the African American Studies program at Georgetown University

With no public swimming pools within a one-hour drive, Columbus County has become a pool desert.
Columbus County, NC doesn’t have a single public pool, and, says Border Belt Independent reporter Ben Rappaport, the nearest one is at least an hour away. He talks to co-host Leoneda Inge about a story he recently reported in partnership with The Assembly called “The Abandoned Pools of Columbus County.” It’s a story of economics and rural decay, and a story of racism.
Ben Rappaport, reporter at the Border Belt Independent

Co-host Leoneda Inge revisits the legacy of civil rights pioneer and gender rights advocate Pauli Murray, the latest American icon to be honored with an American Women Quarter by the U.S. Mint. Guests and featured voices include Rosita Stevens-Holsey is the niece of the Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray, president of Preserving Pauli Murray, LLC and the co-author of Pauli Murray: The Life of a Pioneering Feminist and Civil Rights Activist; Angela Mason is the executive director of the Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice in Durham; Kelly Brown Douglas, Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary in New York City and Rev. Kim Jackson, episcopal priest, state senator in Georgia. This weekend, The Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice will open in Durham, at the site of Murray's childhood home. Editor's note: This conversation originally aired April 9, 2024.

On the North Carolina News Roundup…

Vice presidential candidate Tim Walz raises funds in the Old North State.

Elections officials again consider the candidacy of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

A projected revenue surplus in North Carolina turns out to be no surplus at all. We get a fiscal update of diminishing returns.

Later, we go fact-checking on the campaign trail of one congressional race.

Public schools are back. And so is college football.

Join Jeff Tiberii and a panel of reporters for context and analysis of the week's news.

Football season kicks off in North Carolina
The college football season begins on Thursday, and the high school athletes have already begun playing. Due South convenes a panel to discuss the fall outlook for North Carolina teams, changes to the game, and the shifting landscape on the NIL (Name-Image-Likeness) and gambling fronts.
Mitch Northam, digital producer, WUNC
Kate Rogerson, sports reporter, ABC11, AP Top 25 voter
Brian Murphy, investigative sports reporter, WRAL
Darius Robinson, football coach, Southern Durham High School 

A chat with Sandor Katz, Fermentation Revivalist
Kimchi, Kombucha. Sourdough. … Chocolate? Fermented foods are having a moment. The popularity of these probiotics-rich foods has spiked in recent years. Leoneda Inge chats with fermentation expert Sandor Katz, who headlines this year's North Carolina Fermentation Festival.
Sandor Katz, fermentation expert and author of The Art of Fermentation and Wild Fermentation

One year ago, Associate Professor Zijie Yan was fatally shot at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The campus was locked down for several hours as authorities searched for the suspect. The community was still in mourning when just over two weeks later a report of an “armed and dangerous person” triggered a second lockdown.

UNC-CH clinical psychology graduate student Joe Friedman wanted to understand the mental health impact of the shooting and lockdowns on members of his campus community, so he designed a study called the “UNC Coping Study.” He spoke with co-host Leoneda Inge last fall about the preliminary findings, and he joins her again to share the longer-term results of his research.

Then, Due South presents another conversation in our occasional series “Golden Leaf” about tobacco’s deep roots in North Carolina. The focus today is the history of tobacco warehouses in early and mid-20th century North Carolina.

By day, the work done in these warehouses was governed by the brutal racial injustices of the South. But, on some summer nights, those cavernous buildings were transformed into a different world, says Auburn University history professor Elijah Gaddis. Black music promoters rented the warehouses, invited some of the most famous musicians of the era to perform, and Black party goers danced the night away in a space filled with rich music and glorious decorations – and in doing so, challenged Jim Crow.

Jeff Tiberii chats with Emily Stack, chair of the North Carolina Federation of Young Republicans. Leoneda Inge speaks with David McClennan, political science professor at Meredith College and director of the Meredith Poll. Gino Nuzzolillo, campaigns manager for Common Cause NC, sits down with Leoneda Inge to discuss the upcoming youth-led CarolinaDaze concert series.